Disaffected Fans Cheer D&D Buyout

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Disaffected Fans Cheer D&D Buyout

After keeping geeks up all night through the '80s, Dungeons and Dragons has in recent years lost the spotlight to the immensely successful trading-card game, Magic: The Gathering. And as of next month, it will cede its revenue as well. Wizards of the Coast, creators of Magic: The Gathering, announced Thursday an intent to acquire TSR, producers of Dungeons and Dragons.

Although taking the news with a grain of salt, disaffected D&D fans are also hopeful they'll see changes.

"The long-term effects of this are probably all good.... Many people feel that TSR has stagnated in recent years, leading to a reduction in quality," says Steven Hammond, a 22-year D&D player. "If Wizards of the Coast can revitalize TSR and attract the MTG players into role-playing, then that will be a huge gain for the industry."

Although Magic: The Gathering is a trading-card game and Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game, they share a similar audience and cult-like appeal. Magic's ride to success was partly due to the adventure-game industry that TSR pioneered. But while Magic has grown phenomenally in the three years since its release (2 billion cards are now in circulation), the two-decades-old D&D has been watching its sales - and fans - decline.

"I play Magic on occasion now, and yes, Magic has replaced AD&D {Advanced Dungeons and Dragons} in the general gaming world as *THE* big thing," former D&D player Eric M. Aldrich wrote in an email. "But AD&D has been declining since the late '80s, and it was the lack of anything better out there until the advent of Magic that kept TSR from suffering unduly in the gaming marketplace."

Wizards of the Coast and TSR have signed a letter of intent, but terms of the deal have yet to be finalized. Neither party could say whether TSR will be moved from Wisconsin to the WOTC home in Seattle. The acquisition will, however, put WOTC back into the role-playing game business that it attempted before with the game Primal Order.

Meanwhile, D&D enthusiasts are happy to see TSR go. There's been a rift between fans and TSR since 1993, explains 15-year D&D player Bob Blanchard, when TSR sent cease-and-desist orders to all FTP and Web sites that contained D&D related topics - even those without copyrighted material. The laying off of game co-creator Gary Gygax alienated even more fans. And when TSR began sanitizing its product after complaints from the Christian Right (an action which Magic has also taken), players complained of "G-rated role-playing."

"Corporate attitude toward the gaming community deteriorated into a 'this-is-what-we-put-out, like-it-or-lump-it' attitude, from the fairly open fellow gamers' attitude of previous years," Laurie Kramer, an 18-year veteran of Advanced D&D, said in an email. "While many of the hard-core role-players out there resent the Collectible Card Game genre, for pulling money and people from their hobby, Wizards of the Coast has shown themselves to still care about their consumer base."

"I think it can be a good thing. WOTC has been a reasonable company in the past and I can't see them changing now," says Blanchard.

But not everyone agrees: D&D fans in rec.games.frp.dnd fear that the game will be merged with WOTC games and product lines will be trimmed, and are dubious about WOTC's previous attempts to provide role-playing games.

Still, even TSR employees agree that the buyout was necessary. One source said, D&D sales last year were disappointing, and TSR stopped shipping all products in December. Employees knew that the company was in trouble, but had no idea that it was being sold until the news broke Thursday. The feeling now, one employee says, is of relief.

"The growth of Magic has been due to their marketing, starting up tournaments, and keeping it competitive," one employee said. "They'll probably take the [TSR] properties and use them more effectively."